NRA convention takes aim at gun legislation

Perry, Cruz save their best zingers for Obama, gun-control proponents

By Dan Freedman

Updated
2:14 am CDT, Saturday, May 4, 2013

Heath Bryant of Cypress assists his son, Tate, 5, to shoot a target using a video game-style of gun at an exhibit booth during NRA Youth Day events at the National Rifle Association's 142 Annual Meetings and Exhibits in the George R. Brown Convention Center Sunday, May 5, 2013, in Houston.
More than 70,000 are expected to attend the event with more than 500 exhibitors represented. less

Heath Bryant of Cypress assists his son, Tate, 5, to shoot a target using a video game-style of gun at an exhibit booth during NRA Youth Day events at the National Rifle Association's 142 Annual Meetings and ... more

Photo: Johnny Hanson, Houston Chronicle

Photo: Johnny Hanson, Houston Chronicle

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Heath Bryant of Cypress assists his son, Tate, 5, to shoot a target using a video game-style of gun at an exhibit booth during NRA Youth Day events at the National Rifle Association's 142 Annual Meetings and Exhibits in the George R. Brown Convention Center Sunday, May 5, 2013, in Houston.
More than 70,000 are expected to attend the event with more than 500 exhibitors represented. less

Heath Bryant of Cypress assists his son, Tate, 5, to shoot a target using a video game-style of gun at an exhibit booth during NRA Youth Day events at the National Rifle Association's 142 Annual Meetings and ... more

Photo: Johnny Hanson, Houston Chronicle

NRA convention takes aim at gun legislation

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Leading pro-gun political conservatives served up heaping portions of rhetorical red meat Friday to NRA members at the organization's 142nd annual convention, with Gov. Rick Perry telling the crowd that the "correct response" to horrific gun violence like the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., "is not another federal law that criminals will go around anyway."

Perry's appearance before the convention at Houston's George R. Brown Convention Center was preceded by a video of him taking target practice with a semi-automatic rifle. A lifetime NRA member, Perry said the nation's premier gun owners group "is about safe, responsible gun ownership … the beginning, middle and end of story."

For the most part, the lineup of speakers, which included former GOP Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., concentrated on President Barack Obama and others who favor gun control, including Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Perry accused Obama of wanting to "disarm the American public."

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said the Obama administration had cut $300 million in school safety funding, although the president included money for more school resource officers in his January rollout of proposals in response to the Newtown shooting.

Cruz took a leading role in torpedoing a measure by Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va, and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., that would have expanded background checks to include sales at gun shows, over the Internet and through classified ads. "The target of their legislation is not violent criminals," Cruz said. "The target is law-abiding citizens."

Perry, Cruz and other prominent speakers said Obama and his allies were using the Newtown massacre as a pretext to dust off gun control proposals while avoiding what they termed were real solutions to violent incidents. Among their solutions: Greater mental health care and pinpointing of potentially violent individuals, armed school safety personnel, and more prosecutions of felons and fugitives who try to buy firearms.

'Never back away'

Wayne LaPierre, the lobby's CEO, accused the news media of being in league with Obama, Bloomberg and others in a "vicious effort to attack the Second Amendment."

LaPierre characterized the NRA as the bulwark in defense of gun rights that liberal politicians would gladly take away. "We will never back away from our rights, the rights of all lawful American gun owners," he said.

Most of the speeches were aimed at firing up the more than 70,000 members and gun enthusiasts at the convention center. The convention is unfolding as Manchin and others on Capitol Hill strategize over ways to push the background check through the Senate in a second attempt.

The speakers characterized a political conflict in which they were perpetually on defense. But they were emphatic that they believe they will ultimately triumph in what they characterized as nothing less than a crusade. It was a vision that gun-control advocates outside the convention rejected.

"The NRA's lineup of ultra-right personalities represents a vision of our nation that was roundly rejected in the last election," said Josh Sugarmann, founder and executive director of the Violence Policy Center, who traveled from Washington. "It's a reflection of how out of touch they are with mainstream America - especially after the tragedy of Newtown."

Earlier Friday, a small group of protesters led by Aaron Black, a veteran of Occupy Wall Street, quietly read a list of 4,000 victims of gun violence, starting with the names of the 26 who lost their lives at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown on Dec. 14.

Outreach to members

Joining them at midday was Erica Lafferty, daughter of Sandy Hook Principal Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, who was among the victims, most of them children, who died in shooter Adam Lanza's attack with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle.

Lafferty said her presence in Houston was less about protesting the NRA than it was about reaching out to members on the expanded background check legislation defeated in the Senate last month. "There'll be another vote in the Senate," she said. "I'm confident it will pass."

Inside, NRA members and gun enthusiasts milled about 400,000 square feet of hall space filled to the brim with 550 exhibitors. The roster included everyone from household brand names like Smith & Wesson, Ruger and Colt to smaller concerns such as Slidefire Solutions of Moran, Texas, which makes a device that legally permits semi-automatic rifles to mimic fully automatic machine gun fire.

Also on hand were Safari Club International, which encourages hunting of "unendangered" species such as Whitetail deer, wild turkeys, and pronghorn antelope, and Zombie Industries, which makes a line of zombie-like shooting targets with names like "BoBo," "Wiggles," "Taliban" and "The Ex."